Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge
The Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge in the U.S. state of Montana on the Missouri River. The refuge surrounds Fort Peck Reservoir and is in size. It is the second-largest National Wildlife Refuge in the lower 48 states of the United States, and the largest in Montana. Created in 1936, it was originally called the Fort Peck Game Range. It was renamed in 1963 after Montana artist Charles M. Russell, a famous painter of the American West. In 1976, the "range" was made a "refuge".
History
The establishment of the Russell National Wildlife Refuge is closely tied to the construction of Fort Peck Dam. The lower Missouri River had long been used for commerce, but commercial ships largely stopped using the upper portion of the river after the railroads pushed west in the 1880s. Extensive flooding in the lower part of the river in 1903 and a push for development of the upper portion by the states of South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana in the 1920s led the federal government to consider building large dams on the Missouri. The dams would not only generate electricity for use by railroads and industry, but they would aid in flood prevention and create large reservoirs which could be used for commercial traffic. With the onset of the Great Depression in October 1929, unemployment became a severe problem in Montana. The Franklin D. Roosevelt administration saw dam building as a way of providing unemployment relief. On December 12, 1933, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6491, which turned federal land over to the United States Army Corps of Engineers for the construction of the Fort Peck Dam. Additional lands were turned over to the Corps on May 8, 1934, September 11, 1934, and April 3, 1936.In 1929, President Herbert Hoover signed into law the Migratory Bird Conservation Act, which authorized the federal government to purchase or lease land for the establishment of waterfowl refuges. In 1934, President Roosevelt signed into law the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act, which generated revenue for purchase of waterfowl refuge lands by requiring bird hunters using federal land to purchase a "duck stamp". In 1935, the Roosevelt administration began to consider whether a "Fort Peck Migratory Bird Refuge" should be established around the soon-to-be-filled Fort Peck Reservoir. Noted wildlife biologist Olaus Murie was sent to the area to document the soils, topography, vegetation, and wildlife in the area. Murie's comprehensive report proved critical in convincing the Roosevelt administration that the area around Fort Peck Reservoir should be a wildlife refuge, not merely for birds.
On December 11, 1936, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 7509, establishing the Fort Peck Game Range. Jurisdiction over the range was transferred from the Army Corps of Engineers to the Bureau of Biological Survey. The primary purpose of the range was the preservation of wildlife, although grazing by domestic livestock was permitted.
Over the intervening years, the protected area expanded several times and its name and purpose were changed. On April 13, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9132 which turned over even more Corps-administered land to the game refuge. On February 25, 1963, President John F. Kennedy issued Public Land Order 2951, changing the name of the range to the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Range. On March 25, 1969, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Public Land Order 4588, which established the UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge. This order dissolved Executive Order 7509, and re-established the Russell National Game Refuge under the authority of the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission. The exploitation of the UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge for oil, natural gas, coal, and other minerals was prohibited on May 15, 1970, by Public Land Order 4826.
The 1970s brought additional changes to the protected area. Both the Russell Game Refuge and the UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge were transferred on April 25, 1975, to the Bureau of Land Management by Public Land Order 5498. A year later, Congress amended the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate the Missouri River and its banks within Russell National Wildlife Range as part of the Upper Missouri River National Wild and Scenic River system. On October 19, 1976, Congress established the UL Bend Wilderness as a wilderness area within the UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge. Over time, the wilderness area would expand to. On April 25, 1978, the United States Secretary of the Interior issued Public Land Order 5635. This order revoked Public Land Order 5498, changed the name of the protected area to the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, and turned the area over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for management.
Two important changes were made to the refuge in the 1990s. On September 28, 1993, the Secretary of the Interior issued Public Land Order 6997, which prohibited all mineral exploration within the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge for 20 years. On December 28 of that same year, the General Services Administration transferred of of land from the Army Corps of Engineers to the wildlife refuge.
As of September 2010, the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge contained of land. of land within the refuge were withdrawn from settlement, mineral exploration, grazing, and other uses under federal government's general public land laws. of the refuge's are under the sole jurisdiction of the Fish and Wildlife Service. The Army Corps of Engineers has primary jurisdiction on of land, with the FWS having secondary jurisdiction there. A patchwork of federal agencies retains primary jurisdiction on another of land within the refuge, with the FWS retaining secondary jurisdiction. There are another of state land and of private land within the refuge, with the state land managed by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation in cooperation with FWS.
The Russell National Wildlife Refuge and the UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge are managed as a single unit by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Large areas of both refuges are legally designated as wilderness. The UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge contains the UL Bend Wilderness. Another 15 wilderness study areas totalling are contained within the Russell National Wildlife Refuge. These wilderness study areas are being managed as if they were wilderness while Congress considers them for formal designation as wilderness.
Geography
Beginning about 100 million years ago, a large inland sea known as the Western Interior Seaway covered most of the middle of the modern-day countries of the United States and Canada. It stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean and was deep and wide. A wide range of dinosaurs, including Ankylosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, Thescelosaurus, Triceratops, and Tyrannosaurus, inhabited the area. The combination of extensive prehistoric fauna and a shallow inland sea led to significant preservation and fossilization of animal and plant remains.Approximately 1.5 million years ago, the Missouri River, the Yellowstone River, and Musselshell River all flowed northward into a terminal lake. During the last glacial period, the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets pushed these rivers southward into their present courses. The Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge lies atop these glaciated plains. The glaciers scoured extensive amounts of alluvial deposits from the area, and caused significant erosion of the areas around the Missouri River. These factors left the Russell National Wildlife Refuge rich in readily exposed and recovered fossilized plants and animals.
Native Americans frequently visited the area due to the large number of big game animals which utilized the river. Unlike much of the rest of the Missouri River in the area, the banks of the river at the UL Bend are low and gently sloping. Numerous fords exist near the bend as well. This drew large numbers of American bison, mule deer, pronghorn, Rocky Mountain elk, and white-tailed deer to the area. It is well documented that the Assiniboine, Gros Ventre, and Piegan Blackfeet hunted in the refuge. The origination of the name "UL Bend" is not clear. However, it is most likely named for the U.L. Cattle Company of Great Falls, Montana, which was established in 1896 by Oren and Will Bachues and which grazed herds of cattle there.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition named many of the features located in the refuge, and several important events occurred while the expedition passed through the area in May 1805. On May 8, the Corps passed the Milk River, named for the amount of sediment contained in the river during the spring run-off. On the evening of May 8, the expedition camped a mile or two above Fort Peck Dam. On May 9, the Corps of Discovery entered what is now the CMR NWR. That day, they passed what Meriwether Lewis called Big Dry Creek. The members of the expedition began to suffer from swollen and red eyes, boils, and abscesses from the amount of alkali in the river and soil. At about 5:00 P.M. on May 10, expedition member William E. Bratton was attacked by a grizzly bear. He shot it through the lungs, but the bear continued to charge. Bratton outran the bear, which expedition members later tracked down and killed a few hours later. The creek which emptied into the Missouri River at site of the attack was named Bratton Creek. Another bear encounter occurred on May 14. In the late afternoon, some of the men in the rear boats spotted a grizzly bear sleeping on a sandbar. Six men approached the bear, which woke up and attacked them. Four men shot the bear, but it continued to charge. Two more men shot the bear, but the men were forced to flee back to the river. Four men dispersed, and fired on the bear again, but it pursued them and chased them down a embankment into the river. Finally, one of the men shot the bear in the head, killing it. Lewis decided to call the creek near the spot where the six men almost died "Brown Bear Defeated Creek". That same day, the expedition nearly suffered a terrible loss of its journals and instruments. Toussaint Charbonneau was steering one of the expedition's pirogues when a sudden thunderstorm overtook them. The pirogue overturned, throwing nearly all of the expedition's journals, maps, papers, navigational and survey instruments, and medicine into the river. Charbonneau did nothing to save these materials. But Sacagawea, holding her three-month-old child Jean Baptiste, calmly stood in the rushing water and retrieved nearly all the supplies. The expedition spent two days at the site, drying out their instruments and papers.
Two more near-disasters on May 17 led to the naming of additional features. William Clark was nearly bitten by a rattlesnake while exploring a creek on the northern side of the river. This creek was named Rattlesnake Creek. The party camped near a creek on the south side of the river that evening. Clark saw a fortified Native American lodge a short distance up the creek, believing it to be an Atsina site. Late that night, a cottonwood tree sheltering the camp caught fire from sparks rising from the expedition campfire. The men were barely able to get out of their tent and pull it out of the way before the tree came crashing down on the site. Lewis named this Burnt Lodge Creek. On May 20, the expedition passed the Musselshell River. On May 22, the party passed another creek, which they decided to name Sacajawea Creek. The Corps of Discovery left the CMR NWF on May 24 or 25, after spending a week passing through and exploring the area.